This invention relates to the handling of articles such as magazines, periodicals, or the like and more particularly to apparatus and method for receiving piles of magazines from an input line such as a conveyor and gating them to an output line such as a trimmer infeed conveyor.
In the art of making magazines and the like, the individual magazines are formed by assembling signatures and conveying them to a binder for binding into magazines. The magazines are then stacked into piles and the piles are conveyed to a trimmer for further operations thereon. In copending application Ser. No. 864,235, filed Dec. 27, 1977, assigned to the Assignee of this application, there is disclosed a system for accumulating magazine piles from a binder and feeding them in a controlled manner to the trimmer infeed conveyor.
As described in said copending application, magazine piles are directed into a number of parallel columns between a delivery conveyor from a binder and a trimmer infeed conveyor. Piles are accumulated in the columns to an extent determined by the speed and continuity of operation of the binder and trimmer. The present invention involves an apparatus and method for gating the leading pile of such an accumulated column of piles onto the trimmer infeed conveyor.